Wednesday, May 30, 2007

I've been having some groggy mornings lately. The sun is up earlier now; it should be easier for me to get out of bed. Today I almost scooped coffee grounds into the toaster instead of the coffee maker.

...

I was knitting on Green Gable and watching T.V. and a commercial came on for a sleeping pill, I can't remember which one. Anyhow, there's a shot of a sleeping couple in bed under a blanket, and a giant pill floating above them, and the pill has two layers. The narrator is speaking about how one layer dissolves quickly to put you to sleep fast, and the second layer dissolves slowly to keep you asleep. While he is saying this, the first layer breaks up and sprinkles onto the bed, forming a second blanket, then the other layer does the same thing, forming a third blanket. And at the bottom of the screen, it says, "DRAMATIZATION." Good thing, because I thought maybe a giant pill did float above your bed and turn into blankets. ?!?

...

Rose loves to ride the carousel at Greenfield Village. She's been calling it the "horse-go-round" for a couple of months. Well, as of the last visit, she's realized it's not really called that, and now she's calling it the "carouself." With an f. Cutie pie.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Well, I guess if I'm going to post once a week, it might as well be on the weekend. Seriously, I don't want it to be only once a week, but it's just amazing how the time flies. On Monday, Rachel and I took our respective children to Greenfield Village, which is probably our favorite place to meet up this time of year.

We got to see a sheep being shorn, one of the merino sheep that live on the farm at the village. And folks? Notice that the man was using shears. I love the historical demonstrations at Greenfield Village, but this was a first for both Rachel and me. We've never been lucky enough to be present for a shearing, as they only do it once a year.

Elsewhere in the village, there was a spinning demonstration, but you mothers out there recognize the low melting point of two toddlers and an infant. Rachel and I didn't want to push our luck. So I took the girls on the carousel!

No one got sick; we all had a great time saying "Yippee!" and waving to all the stationary people on the ground, including Lena's mommy and baby brother.

In case you wanted an update on my eBay situation (I know you've all been dying to know), the e-mail was indeed from eBay. I was pretty sure it was authentic, because it used my full first and last name, and it had no links within the e-mail, but directions for contacting help through the website. Anyhow, no damage has been done and I'm free to buy on eBay again, but I sure did change all of my passwords.

Knitting is still slow, although I'm about to attempt the heel on this toe-up sock. I guess I'd better apologize for my earlier crabbiness about toe-ups ("My cuff-down socks always fit fine if I get gauge; who needs to try them on? I hate picking up the wraps on this short-row toe, crab, crab, crab...") because, friends? Even though I don't need to, I just love putting this half of a sock on my foot and admiring it! And it's not even for me!

I'm not a total convert. I know I'll still be knitting my share of cuff-down socks. But I don't resent toe-up socks anymore, and I'll be knitting those, too. Hopefully, I can learn to clean up those sloppy wraps!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

I just wanted to share a little malapropism that my dear husband discovered in the program of a community theatre production we attended last night. Below a list of people and organizations that had helped was this gem: "We apologize to anyone we indivertedly left out." That's my new favorite word.

not so funny:

Just received an e-mail from eBay stating that "Due to recent activity, including possible unauthorized listings, we have temporarily suspended activity on your account in order to allow us to investigate this matter further." Now, I haven't used eBay in ages, so I suspect someone has been trying to mess with my account. I've been waiting for some Live Help for about half an hour now, and it's just making me crazy. I'm feeling very paranoid, and as soon as I post this, I'm going to change all my passwords for everything. Grrrr.

Rachel, I saw you yesterday and forgot to bring you bread and starter. You will not escape. You will get Friendship Bread. :)

Thursday, May 10, 2007

This is crazy. I just don't feel like knitting this week. I've got some Friendship Bread in the oven, and it smells lovely. Andrew and I received our starter from a friend at church. I'm not sure who I'm going to give the new bags of starter to. Others in our choir have already received starters. My mother-in-law and my father have diabetes, and my mother has been watching what she eats. I wonder if my sister would like one. Rachel, do you want one, too?

I love that Rose is at the age where she's starting to have conversations. It's so funny to have an exchange with her. It's almost unreal that this fluent little girl was my crying, cooing baby. She's got two little turns of phrase that crack me up. One is "What is that was?" which, translated, is "What was that?" She also asks, "What is that my?" or "What is that your?" It's like her brain knows that to ask a question, you rearrange the words of a statement and replace the item in question with "what" or another word (That is a cat/What is that?). But if there's a possessive pronoun, she leaves in all the words from the statement. So instead of "That is my crib/What is that?" it's "That is my crib/What is that my?" I know she'll grow out of it soon. In the meantime, I think it's so cute.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Knitting has been going slowly lately. Part of it is the warming weather, I think, and part of it is that other things have been taking a lot of my time and energy lately. I thought I had gotten rid of that cold, but it came back with part II last week -- lots of dry coughing and little good sleep. At the same time, I had to spend a lot of time at church providing the music for a week-long retreat. Now I'm trying to get my house back in order, but wanting to be outside playing with Rose in the sunshine seems to be taking more priority. And I haven't checked my e-mail for a week.

I did start Green Gable, and now that I'm about halfway down the yoke, it seems that I'm actually getting gauge. Sigh. I was counting on the loss of two inches in the body measurement through that extra quarter stitch per inch, now it looks like I'm going to really be knitting the large size. I'll wait until I get to the underarms and see how it looks on me before I decide to continue or frog it.